MOMMA’S MAN
US, 2008, 94 minutes, Colour.
Matt Boren, Ken Jacobs, Flo Jacobs, Richard Edson, Piero Arcilesi.
Directed by Azazel Jacobs.
There is an independent movie-making tradition from the US that offers small-budget slices of life, kind of fly-on-the-wall glimpses of ordinary but unusual people, caught as it were in their spontaneous behaviour rather than in convincingly deep performances. This makes us believe we are not watching a film but are partly prying by means of a documentary portrait. Yet, it is, in fact, performed but in this seemingly ingenuous way.
These films are not to everyone's taste. At times they seem to dwell on minute detail and our minds wander. And the lives are not always that interesting. However, just by being there and watching, we are drawn into the characters' behaviour and their complexities.
Momma's Man is that kind of film.
Writer-director, Azazel Jacobs, has asked chubby, approaching middle-age actor, Matt Bolen, to act as Michael, his alter ego. But, he films in his home in lower Manhattan where he grew up and has asked his painter mother, Flo, and his experimental film-maker father, Ken Jacobs, to act as Michael's parents. One of the things we immediately feel is the bond between husband and wife in real life as well as on screen and their love and companionship.
Basically, we watch Michael put off leaving New York where he came on business, and staying with his parents, remembering his past, visiting and contacting old friends, unable to return to his wife and young daughter in California.
The main action in New York, most of it indoors in the eccentric studio/home of the Jacobs and in his old loft-room which is now a store-room, is punctuated by scenes of Michael's wife in Los Angeles wondering what has happened, leaving many phone messages and trying to cope.
His father appreciates what is going on but is a silent supportive type. His mother seems sometimes overwhelmed with love for her son but also is aware of his needs and limitations. There is a final pieta scene where she embraces and holds him and he sobs.
Despite the attention wandering during the film, the memories stay with you.There is an independent movie-making tradition from the US that offers small-budget slices of life, kind of fly-on-the-wall glimpses of ordinary but unusual people, caught as it were in their spontaneous behaviour rather than in convincingly deep performances. This makes us believe we are not watching a film but are partly prying by means of a documentary portrait. Yet, it is, in fact, performed but in this seemingly ingenuous way.
These films are not to everyone's taste. At times they seem to dwell on minute detail and our minds wander. And the lives are not always that interesting. However, just by being there and watching, we are drawn into the characters' behaviour and their complexities.
Momma's Man is that kind of film.
Writer-director, Azazel Jacobs, has asked chubby, approaching middle-age actor, Matt Bolen, to act as Michael, his alter ego. But, he films in his home in lower Manhattan where he grew up and has asked his painter mother, Flo, and his experimental film-maker father, Ken Jacobs, to act as Michael's parents. One of the things we immediately feel is the bond between husband and wife in real life as well as on screen and their love and companionship.
Basically, we watch Michael put off leaving New York where he came on business, and staying with his parents, remembering his past, visiting and contacting old friends, unable to return to his wife and young daughter in California.
The main action in New York, most of it indoors in the eccentric studio/home of the Jacobs and in his old loft-room which is now a store-room, is punctuated by scenes of Michael's wife in Los Angeles wondering what has happened, leaving many phone messages and trying to cope.
His father appreciates what is going on but is a silent supportive type. His mother seems sometimes overwhelmed with love for her son but also is aware of his needs and limitations. There is a final pieta scene where she embraces and holds him and he sobs.
Despite the attention wandering during the film, the memories stay with you.
1.Small-budget independent film? American style? New York- Manhattan style? Interest for American audiences? Universal audiences?
2.The Manhattan locations, the streets, the diners, the homes, apartments, lofts? The contrast with California, the scenes of the city, more open? The musical score?
3.The work of the director, writing and directing? Using his parents as the fictional mother and father? His character Mikey resembling himself and his growing up? His crises? How interesting, convincing?
4.The portrait of Mikey, thirties, married, child? Leaving wife and daughter in California? His work in New York? His crisis? Hurry to the airport, the plane delayed, not going? Returning to his parents’ apartment, staying in the loft? His motivations? Explanations of his not going? Inventing explanations as time went on? The phone calls to his wife, reassurance? His ignoring her phone calls? His relationship with his father, laid-back, artist? Sympathy, listening? His mother and her devotion, her love for her son, care for him? Yet leaving him alone? His going through old things, going to see his friend Dante, Dante and his eccentricities? His going to see Bridget? His apology to her? Her not remembering? His suicidal impulses, falling down the stairs? His trying to sleep, rest? The turmoil inside? His final decision, his father’s plain speaking, his mother holding him like the Pieta? His weeping? Phone call to his wife? Return and his future?
5.The portrait of Mikey’s parents? Their artistic work, using film? The cluttered apartment and loft? His mother’s art? Sympathetic characters? At home with each other? The father, laid-back, the mother, devoted, mothering? The final confrontation with Mikey? The mother holding him, his weeping?
6.His wife, with the daughter? The marriage, commitment? His fears? The phone calls and reassurance? Her beginning to panic, phoning him, his not answering? Deleting the phone calls and messages? The friendship with Tom, his attention, helping her at the supermarket, with her goods? The final phone call?
7.Going to visit Dante, Dante and memories of the past, the posters on his wall, doing exercises? Talk about sex and sexuality? Friendship? Supportive of Mikey? Questioning him?
8.The encounter with Bridget, memories of the past, her not remembering his behaviour?
9.A glimpse of her personality, ordinary? The fly-on-the-wall treatment? Audiences sitting, observing, becoming absorbed?
